Dan Abrams Talks Trump on The View: ‘All Signs Point to a Likely Indictment’
ABC News chief legal analyst and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams told the co-hosts of The View on Tuesday that when it comes to the criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business practices, “all signs” suggest that an indictment is likely.
“Those of us in news media always want to try to be careful, about what might happen when it comes to an indictment, but I’ll tell you this: all signs point to a likely indictment,” Abrams told co-host, Sara Haines.
After listing his reasons for why he believes an indictment is likely, including the fight over Trump’s tax returns and the fact that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance brought on former federal prosecutor Mark Pomerantz to help oversee the investigation, Abrams said the fact that a grand jury has been empaneled is the most important sign of all.
“You don’t get a grand jury like this unless they believe they have evidence of a crime,” Abrams said. “So all the evidence, all the signals are towards a likely indictment of someone, if not, more than one person.”
Later, co-host Joy Behar expressed skepticism that Trump would potentially face criminal liability, citing the fact that he was acquitted – twice – in two different impeachment trials, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report that did not find evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and declined to draw a conclusion on obstruction of justice.
“This is different,” Abrams responded, explaining that both the impeachment trials and in the Mueller investigation were limited to the rules that forced those processes to stay in their particular “lane.”
“This Manhattan DA, in particular, can investigate whatever potential crime comes across his desk,” Abrams said. “We’re not talking about Donald Trump as president with the protections that the president has. We’re talking about what Donald Trump as a private citizen with regard to real estate deals and possible bank fraud, etcetera. So in this sense, he’s being treated just like everybody else, which makes this a very different kind of investigation than every other one you mentioned.”
When Behar pointed out that “no president has ever gone to prison,” Abrams emphasized that this particular investigation into this particular president is different.
“It’s not like there have been investigations like this with regard to other former presidents either,” Abrams said. “You have to look at what the evidence is, and this is a much bigger investigation than I think we’ve ever seen with regard to a former president.”
“Look, they may say, ‘we’re going to create a higher standard because he’s the former president,’” Abrams also said. “That’s possible that the D.A. does that. But if you just view it as a private citizen, and if it were any other case, anyone else would be telling you all signals are towards indictment.”
Watch above, via ABC.
